Cadel Evans drops out of Olympic time trial

Cadel Evans, the Australian winner of the 2011 Tour de France, has pulled out of the Olympic road time trial on Wednesday.

The 35 year old, who suffered from a virus during this year's Tour, came 79th in Saturday's Olympic road race.

The Australian Olympic Committee confirmed that Evans saw the cycling doctor Mark Fisher and also the head team doctor Peter Baquie.

He was found to be fatigued, with no chance of recovery by Wednesday, leaving Michael Rogers as the only Australian representative in the race.

The news of Evan's withdrawal comes as uncertainty still hovers over the appearance of Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss rider who crashed out of the running for the road race on Saturday.

Cancellara came in eventually at the back of the pack, nursing a suspected broken collarbone, which since proved to be unbroken, but on Sunday the cyclist was tweeting that his chances of making the time trial were '50/50'.

The news will come as a boost to Bradley Wiggins though, as the nation's hope for a gold medal at the event after a disappointing result in the road race.

After an unpromising start, having to be bribed by her parents to learn to ride without stabilisers, Sarah became rather keener on cycling in her university years, and was eventually persuaded to upgrade to proper road cycling by the prospect of a shiny red Italian bike, which she promptly destroyed by trapping a pair of knickers in the rear derailleur. Sarah writes about about cycling every weekend on road.cc.